


Drew World Drabbles

by Gears112, phantomthief_fee



Series: Drew World [10]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Alternate Universe - Amusement Park, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Drabbles, Drew World AU, Friendship, Gen, Magic Revealed, Multi, Parent-Child Relationship, Werewolves, oneshots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2019-10-06 10:14:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 16,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17343446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gears112/pseuds/Gears112, https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomthief_fee/pseuds/phantomthief_fee
Summary: Canon Oneshots/drabbles/etc, set in the Drew World AU





	1. Norman the Sitter

...

“Heh, they’re out like lights.” Henry chuckled as he saw the two passed out right next to the projector. Norman chuckled as he turned from his desk.

“Yeap, they fell asleep about an hour ago.” He said. “You heading home now?”

“Well, I’ve got to manage a few more script things, just wanted to see how everyone was doing...before I went nose deep into things…” Norman chuckled softly before pausing as if wanting to say something before shaking his head, peeking Henry’s curiosity. “Norman? Something up?”

“Ah, it’s probably nothing,” Norman chuckled. “The two just seemed to playing with a bottle of ink earlier and I could’ve sworn I heard the voices of the toons, laughing with ‘em. But I’m probably just running on fumes,” He laughed nervously and Henry gave the man a look.

“Norman, get some sleep, ok?” He said. “Last thing we need is you getting sick…” Norman laughed but nodded.

“Whatever you say boss.” Henry laughed and headed back to his desk. Norman sighed before looking at the two children, wondering what he actually saw before he had suggested the two watch some of the shorts. He sighed and shook his head. “Maybe Henry’s right…I need a break…seeing and hearing things are certainly not going to help with dealing with Mr. Drew and that Hill fella…”

.

* * *

 

.

“What are you up to Mr. Hill?” Joshua scurried over to Norman as Murray forced a smile.

“I was merely asking Joshua a simple question.” Murray said, wondering when the man showed up.

“Was it about that Creator nonsense?” Murray pursed his lips as Norman shook his head. “You’ve already asked Linda, Joshy’s not gonna give you a different answer, now knock it off and actually do the job Mr.Drew pays you for.” Murray frowned and Norman shrugged. “He’s not a man who tolerates tomfoolery in his studio.” Norman’s face softened as he turned to the boy. “How about you come help me with the recording session, Joshua?” The boy nodded firmly and quickly followed Norman, who gave Murray a cool glare before following after the boy. Murray fumed; the projectionist was getting  _ awfully _ nosy in his affairs, as was Henry’s daughter. Murray sighed as he adjusted his jacket and stood; he was going to need to figure out a way to get rid of those  _ distractions _ one way or another.


	2. Creation of the Searchers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's the Searchers in this AU, and by far, the cutest variant in any AU

...

  
“FOSTER! Save me!!” Joshua turned as Joey leapt onto the man and crawled onto the man’s shoulders and hid behind his head.   
  
“W-What?” Joshua asked slowly as he looked at the tiny toon before seeing the very irritated looking janitor storming over to him. He sighed and shook his head. “What did Henry tell you?”   
  
“Don’t draw on Grant’s face?” Joey asked, trying to innocent as the surrounding children giggled at the display, especially as Wally stormed up to Joey and Joshua, covered in ink and fuming. The man sighed and shook his head.   
  
“The other thing Bendy.”   
  
“Don’t make Wally’s life harder than it already is….” The demon mumbled sheepishly. “B-But it was too easy! And Boris already had a bucket and Alice wasn’t anywhere so I couldn’t just waste the chance to pull such a great-” Joshua picked up the demon and handed him over to Wally.   
  
“You help him clean up your mess.” Joey groaned loudly, earning much laughter. “And I won’t inform Henry about this incident.” Joey groaned louder. “Or I can tell him, and he’ll tell you to clean up your mess.”   
  
“Fiiiiine!!!” He crossed his arms as he left Wally drag him to the mess he made. Joshua sighed, shaking his head as one of the children pulled on his shirt.   
  
“Bendy’s not in trouble, is he?” Joshua chuckled and nodded, getting to the child’s eye level.   
  
“No, he’s not,” Joshua explained. “He just forgets that Wally’s working really hard cleaning up and he doesn’t need any help making his job harder.” Joshua explained and the children nodded.   
  
“Can we make Mr. Wally’s job easier?” Joshua scratched his chin.   
  
“Well, maybe we can talk to Henry about some ideas if you guys have any...”   
.

* * *

  
.   
“What in the world?” Cordelia asked slowly as she saw the group of children in colored vests following Bendy and Boris, wearing similar vests walk through the park.   
  
“Meet the Ink Searchers,” Joshua chuckled, coming up next to her, chuckling. “They’re helping Wally clean up the park. It was one of their ideas; they wanted to help Wally out,” Cordelia laughed. “Of course, it’s kinda more of a club for the kids, kinda like the Boy or Girl Scouts than actual janitorial work, but right now, they’re helping Wally out, playing with the Borises and picking small things up.”   
  
“That’s pretty adorable…” Cordelia laughed. “Who did the vests?”   
  
“Wally’s idea, since Shawn was complaining he was bored.” Cordelia chuckled.   
  
“Well, it’s certainly clever to keep their clothes clean…”   
  
“Yeah, and Grant’s planning to schedule some special events for them, and kinda have it be like a special ticket upgrade.” He shrugged. “At least I’m not being toppled by your former boss while I make the rounds.” She chuckled and patted her boyfriend on the back.   
  
“There is that,”


	3. Rough Housing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little dabble set in the past where Joey and Henry bond as friends

....

“Can I help you?” Joey asked, getting the attention of Henry and the person in the blazer outside the studio.

“Ah, Mr. Drew, I was merely explaining to Mr. Ross that Mr. Foster-” Joey didn’t even let him finish.

“Unless I hear it from the man’s mouth personally, you lot can shove the fuck off.” Joey slammed the door in the person’s face. Henry looked at his friend with a small smile. “What? My building, my rules.”

“There is such a thing as decorum.”

“He was annoying.” Joey said firmly before stretching. “And besides, we need to run the lines of Bendy and Boris, something about the scene isn’t right.” Henry looked at his friend curiously as he followed the man to the break room.

“What do you mean?” Henry asked. “I’m sure the scene is fine but-wait, you’re not just making something up to keep me from going back and arguing with those men?” Joey smiled sheepishly.

“Maaaybe?” He chuckled. “Besides, let them deal with Maria, she’ll set them straight faster than Jonathan or Lillian or any of us could.” Henry chuckled softly.

“I suppose so, but I almost got through to them…”

“Henry, Henry, you’re such a heart-filled sap,” Joey laughed. “Always looking for the best in everyone.” Henry made a face and gently shoved his friend.

“And you’re being dramatic, Joey,” The two ended in a shoving match, though both men were laughing. Unknown to the two, the two children were poking their heads into the break room and seeing the friends roughhouse. Linda made a face.

“So when Daddy plays rough, it’s ok, but when I do it, it’s not?” Joshua shrugged.

“Must be an adult thing.”


	4. What Campbell's Up To

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Susie meets an interesting man on her way back to Hollywood who I'm totally sure won't be important down the line... ;)

...

“Ms. Campbell?” Susie looked up from her drink at the airport bar, waiting for her flight. The man smiled. “Long time fan of your work.” Susie rolled her eyes playfully.

“Flattery gets you a lot of places, but my flight is in an hour.” The man laughed, holding his hands up.

“I swear I am just a fan, nothing more, nothing less!” He said quickly, hoping to dispel the idea he was just looking for a quick time. “I was just curious when I saw you here at the airport,” Susie snorted.

“Had a...prior engagement here that I had to cover.” She said smoothly. “Something came up with...Alice Angel.”

“The owner realize that the audience is a lot smarter and we’d notice the voice change?” Susie looked at him and she chuckled softly, greatly flattered by the smooth talking fan.

“I suppose...it was something with Drew World, the new amusement park,” She mused. “It’s a bit of a blur in all honesty, but he’s not going to hear the end of it yet.” She sighed. “Just got to find myself a lawyer.” The man laughed and Susie raised an eyebrow. “What?” He pulled out a business card and handed it to her.

“Alexander Meadows.” He introduced himself. “I’ll refrain from making a ‘shining knight’ joke or some tacky remark on it being fate,”

“I’ll say it’s more being sent from above.” She said softly before looking at the man. “Do you think you can fit me for a meeting an hour before my flight?” Alexander chuckled before pretending to bow.

“Anything for an angel,” He said playfully and Susie laughed.

.

* * *

 

.

“I’m glad you made it back to your house,” Cordelia chuckled and the phone with Susie. “There wasn’t any trouble, was there?”

“Pfft, hardly, though Joey’s going to have some.” Cordelia blinked.

“Oh?”

“Oh yeah, I found myself a charming lawyer and he’s going to help me take care of the mess Joey made me deal with.” Cordelia decided to not point out that _she_ was the one who left the studio to chase a Hollywood opportunity with barely a “goodbye” or a heads up. “Perhaps you heard of him? Ah, Alexander Meadows?”

“No, no, the name doesn’t sound familiar...I’ll have to ask a friend if she does…” Cordelia chuckled.

“Ah, darn, well I’m sure he’ll probably talk to you or any of the others to see how crazy Drew is. Ah well, I’ve got an audition to catch, tata Dee~”

“Bye Susie.” Cordelia chuckled before hanging up. She shook her head before seeing Murray. “O-Oh! Mr. Hill, why are you-”

“Ben-erm, Joey, wanted to share his creation in the dessert kitchen and made me deliver it to people he said are “testers”. Roy says it’s fine.”

“He’s not one to say no to free food…” She pointed out. “Oh! Do you happen to know a lawyer named Alexander Meadows?” Murray’s reaction was hard to read before shaking his head.

“Not as a lawyer...I did meet a fellow when my parents were introducing my sister to…” Murray snorted. “Well, they claimed it was for a school dinner thing, but they were trying to set her up on a blind date…his name was Alexander…” He shrugged. “I don’t really remember much about the meeting though…”

“Oh...ok then…” Cordelia chuckled. “Well, enough about that, what exactly did Joey make?” Murray led the way to the kitchen, trying to explain what the man-turned-toon made.


	5. AU: Meeting Momma Lawrence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU variant where it's Mrs. Lawrence who deals with Joey in regards to her children.

...

“I shall speak with Mr. Drew, dear.” Mrs. Lawrence stated simply as Alice and Cordelia came over to them before turning to her youngest. “Jacob, make sure you stay within your father’s eyesight. Ms. Bell, Ms. Angel, shall we?” Alice looked nervously at Cordelia before looking at Mrs. Lawrence in concern.

“Papa Drew is really dangerous, though!” Alice whispered loudly and looked up when Mr. Lawrence patted her shoulder as Mrs. Lawrence chatted brightly with Cordelia.

“Don’t worry about my wife, Alice.” He said to her. “Worry about what’ll happen to Drew.” He patted her back and pecked his wife on the cheek. “Have a good talk with Mr. Drew Darling, and make sure I said hello as well.” She nodded and the three women left, both the toon and younger woman concerned as they made it to the office, followed by Bendy, who was more than confused by the three. Mrs. Lawrence gracefully knocked on the door and Joey allowed them in. Admittedly he looked concerned, but quickly covered it with a smile.

“Ah, Mrs. Lawrence!” Joey said, standing and taking the woman’s hand, being a gentleman as he kissed the back of her hand. “Such a wonder to see you coming to the park! How are you enjoying it?” He gave a lidded look to Cordelia and Alice but before he could speak, Mrs. Lawrence did feigning a sigh.

“I have do have some concerns, Mr. Drew, and I sure hope you can assist me; Cordelia and Alice have helping me as well, and I am certainly beginning to worry.” Joey nodded and sat back down in his seat.

“Of course, how may I assist you this fine day?” Rebecca smiled as she daintily adjusted her purse.

“Mr. Drew, where is Samuel and Nancilee?” Joey didn’t even seemed phased as he sighed as Bendy raised an eyebrow.

“I do not know,” Alice clutched Cordelia’s hand nervously, worried about Joey easily weaseling his way out of this. “Sammy went home yesterday, and I sent Nancy home earlier. She wasn’t feeling well.” Mrs. Lawrence chuckled and Cordelia bit her lip.

“Joseph, I do believe you misheard me.” Mrs. Lawrence chuckled, her smile still there. “Where are my children?” Joey chuckled, though he did nervously adjusted his seat.

“Mrs. Lawrence, Rebecca…” He trailed off as he saw the woman remove her gloves and placing them in her purse. Bendy whistled as he saw the ring.

“Wowie! That’s a nice ring ma’am!” She smiled, looking at the demon.

“Thank you darling; it’s my prize ring.”

“What was it for?” Alice asked curiously as Joey paled, seeing the devious glint in the eyes of the pastor’s wife.

“Let’s just say that a certain  _ gentleman _ overstepped his boundaries regarding Samuel, and I had to teach him a very important lesson of messing with my darlings.” 

.

* * *

 

.

“How was the chat Darling?” Mrs. Lawrence chuckled as she led the group back to the entrance of the park.

“Oh wonderful, Gerald; Joseph was rather stubborn, but in the end he has agreed to allow Cordelia to be let go, so that she can work with us at the church,” Cordelia looked at the older woman in surprise. “We do need a new Sunday School teacher after all.” Gerald nodded as Joey muttered a weak groan. “Oh, what’s that Mr. Drew?” Rebecca said loudly. “You want to offer some assistance by paying for the hospital bills?” Joey looked ready to snap back but shuddered under the woman’s chilling gaze, despite the smile. “Well, we will have to see how much damage was done by your...park, but you will indeed foot the bill. We will be in touch.” As they left Dee pulled Mr. Lawrence aside.

“F-Father Lawrence...did you know…?” She trailed off, unsure how to continue. Gerald chuckled.

“How’d you think we met in the first place?” He joked. “Rebecca has a right hook to rival most men...definitely taught many a prideful man a lesson…” He absently rubbed his jaw and Cordelia chuckled. “Stole my heart and broke my nose, all in the same swing…”

“At least you took it far more gracefully than the boxer from Dakota.” Rebecca noted, looking at the former intern with a much warmer smile. “Man was a small time boxing champion and thought he could teach the boys lessons in boxing and what was ‘proper’ for boys and girls to be doing.” Jacob looked at his mother.

“That’s where the ring’s from? Whoooa!!” Rebecca chuckled as Chris laughed.

“That’s why nobody messes with Mrs. ‘Right-Left Hook’ Lawrence or her babies…” Cordelia chuckled.

“Also explains where Nancy got her talent at least…” Chris mumbled, absently rubbing his jaw.


	6. Songs and Good Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A drabble where Henry sings to his daughter before the events of the AU and one post the "accident" as Henry gets some help packing the house and recovering from the events.

...

“Who’s my little lady, sweet as apple pie, and happy as can be?”

“Me, Daddy! It’s me!” Henry chuckled as he danced around with his little angel in his arms.

“That’s right Linda-Lou! You’re my special sunshine, every night and day~” Linda shrieked with laughter as she held her father’s face, planting a kiss on his face. He laughed as he peppered her with his kisses.

“I thought you two were getting ready for bed.” Henry and Linda looked at the doorway and saw Maria leaned against the door, arms crossed, a playful smile on her face.

“We are,” Henry said simply, as Linda tried to hide her smile and giggling as Maria came closer. “I’m singing Linda to sleep.”

“With her school clothes on?”

“Um…”

“And her hair unbrushed and no bubble bath smell to speak of?” Henry went red and Maria laughed. “Oh, you silly silly man.” She pecked him on the cheek as she took Linda from him. “Let’s get your bath ready, alright sweetpea?”

“Can Daddy do the Bendy song?” Maria chuckled.

“Of course he can, but he better come with us, we can’t have the dogs next door hear and try to sing along.” Linda shrieked with laughter as Henry chuckled, following his loved ones into the bathroom.

.

* * *

 

.

Henry sighed softly as he sat in the floor of his daughter’s former room, the items belonging to her packed up and covered from view. He wiped his face, breathing shakily as it was hitting home that they were never coming home again.

“Henry?” Wally’s voice echoed as the man poked his head into the room. “Whoa! Man! Henry!” Wally rushed over and took the man’s shoulders, hugging him tightly. “Henry, man! Dude!” Wally made some upset whining sounds, obviously upset at seeing his friend upset before pulling the man to his feet. Henry couldn’t help but smile at the man’s attempt to make him feel better.

“T-Thank you Wally..” Henry managed out softly. “Thank you…” Wally mumbled something into the man’s chest as Shawn poked his head.

“We finished packing downstairs…” He said softly, before smiling at Wally. “Sammy’s offering to take us to a diner in town for lunch if you want…”

“Free food’s free food.” Wally noted, mumbling into Henry, earning a chuckle from everyone.

“Yeah…” Henry said slowly. “It might be a good idea to get out of the house for a while…” The three nodded and went downstairs to meet Sammy.


	7. Projection Problems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave looks for the projector Norman had mentioned once when replacing the one in the theater only to find something else.

...

Dave frowned as he looked around the parts and service of the theater. He flicked on the lights, frowning further as he saw nothing of what he was looking for.

“Where the hell is that thing?” He asked aloud; the current projector had unceremoniously kicked the bucket during the last showing and Dave was trying to find the spare projector in the parts room, remembering Norman mentioning once that the spares were usually kept there. Dave continued to look around before spotting the area where the projector box was. “Aha!” He opened the box and frowned. “Empty? Son of a…” He sighed and shook his head, taking the box and breaking it down before noticing something glistening in the light of the service room. He leaned and picked it up as he set the flat box along the wall. “This is weird...maybe Henry will know who this will belong to, and who might’ve took the projector.” He exited the service room, flicking off the lights, unaware that he missed the ritual sigil on the inside of the box, oozing black ink.

.

* * *

 

.

“Hey, Mr. Ross.” Henry looked up from the employee papers he was looking over as Dave came into the office. He smiled seeing one of the older tattoo artist.

“Hey, Dave, were you able to find the projector?” Dave shook his head.

“Only the box that someone forgot to break down, and this thing,” He handed the small charm like thing to Henry, who looked it over. “Any idea who it belongs to?” Henry frowned slightly.

“Not sure...I mean it definitely looks familiar, but I can’t put where I’ve seen it…” He said. “Maybe Joey knows.” He pushed his office chair to a drawer and gently knocked.

“Mmguh, five...more...minutes…” Dave smiled as Henry chuckled, rolling his eyes and knocked again. “Essie, stahp...it's Saturday….I can sleep in….”

“Who’s Essie?” Dave asked and there was a loud thunk, most likely Joey realizing that he had been sleep-talking and jolted awake, banging his head on the ‘ceiling’ of the drawer. A loud ‘Ow’ later, Joey opened the drawer and weakly poked his head out.

“Whaaat?” He whined. “I was sleeping!”

“Joey, do you know who this belongs to?” Henry asked, holding up the item.

“That’s Norman’s.” Joey said quickly. “He must’ve dropped it or something when he was moving stuff around; old fart overworking himself too hard,” Joey had mumbled that last part, though by Henry hiding his smile, he wasn’t that quiet about it. Dave sighed and rolled his eyes, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“Do you know where Norman is? I mean I’d like to give it back to him,” Joey shrugged absently.

“Dunno, haven’t seen him since I turned Wally into Boris…” Henry looked at Joey. “I didn’t touch him! Honest! Guy can be sneaky as all @#%% when he wants to be, and whenever he had to talk to me, he always had someone else with him.” Henry nodded, knowing why the projectionist would do such a thing.

“Sounds like Norman…” He admitted before rubbing the back of his head and looking at Dave. “I’ll try and get into contact with Norman; he probably took the projector of the other theater in the park...I’ll see if Grant can check if we have enough to get one to replace the main one in that theater.”

“What happened to that one?” Joey asked curiously.

“Thing overheated apparently.” Dave said, shrugging. “We’re keeping that theater closed unti-”

“NU UH!” Joey hopped out of his ‘bed’ and stormed to the door. “There’s no way we’re closing that building down for nothing!”

“But we can’t play any shorts-”

“I can dance!” Dave looked at Henry, who was equally speechless as Joey grabbed Dave’s hand. “Now let’s hoof it and we’ll get it in time for the next showing time!”

“Uh...good luck guys?” Henry offered before the door slammed as Dave was the unexpecting partner in crime for Joey. He sighed and shook his head, his eyes falling back to Norman’s charm-looking item. He furrowed his brows; he hadn’t heard from Norman in a while either and while he knew Joey was being truthful, there was something that was unsettling about not seeing the former projectionist around yet. “Maybe I should call Lacie and see if she’s seen him…”


	8. Two Drabbles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two drabbles starring Chris and Roy, and Joshua and Isaac

....

“He’s glaring at me.” Nancy turned and looked over shoulder to see her father before looking at Roy with the classic Lawrence lidded glare.

“He’s just watching.” She said. “Making sure there’s no trouble from you.” Roy grunted.

“I was an actor, not some thug.” Nancy chuckled as she playfully patted him on the nose.

“That’s not what he’s thinking of in regards to you Mr. Bell~” Roy’s face flushed as Nancy laughed and sauntered over to Alice and Boris, leaving the former actor confused on what she meant by that.

“What?” 

“What’s up?” Chris asked, coming over to Roy who shook his head quickly. 

“Nancy’s confusing.”

“She is a Lawrence.” Chris said, taking a sip of his drink. “Kinda comes with the turf.”

“Sammy’s easy to understand; obnoxious yes, but at least he’s not cryptic about things. She says that Father Lawrence isn’t glaring at me because I’m going to cause trouble.” Chris blinked slowly before sighing, placing a hand on Roy’s shoulder.

“ _Dude_...He thinks you have the hots for his daughter.”

.

* * *

 

.

“What are you doing?” Isaac looked up from his drink at Joshua, who had spotted the boy at a table with a drink.

“Mr. Murray’s weird friend said I was an empath, so I’m trying to lift my drink.” Joshua chuckled softly.

“Dude, that’s  _ telekinesis _ , not an empath.” At Isaac’s curious look, Joshua shrugged. “Some people get some weird designs inspired by magic stuff, so I skim the library books to make sure I don’t accidently tattoo a slur in Elvish.” Isaac snickered at that idea as Joshua sighed softly. “You laugh, but you haven’t seen a person coming in to get their tattoo fixed because they didn’t go to google it first,” He chuckled before telling the boy about some of the tattooing misadventures before Rachel and their parents came back to the table, unaware of eavesdroppers nearby.


	9. Roy Is Awkward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A follow-up to the last chapter featuring Roy being awkward and trying to assuage Father Lawrence's fears

It took Roy a few days to finally get up the courage to go talk to Father Lawrence. Especially since Cordelia was absolutely no help in the matter. As soon as he'd told his sister that Father Lawrence thought he had a crush on Nancy, Cordelia had burst out laughing. 

"You're not helping," he said testily as Cordelia rolled around on the couch. It took a moment or two for her to finally stop laughing enough to talk, but she was still giggling in between words. 

"I'm sorry." She stifled a giggle. "It's just been forever since this happened."

Roy had always put on the facade of a suave ladies man in order to make things easier for himself, but he was very very much not straight. Nancy was nothing more than a friend to him. A close friend, considering how close his sister was to Sammy. He might even go so far as to say he considered her something of a second sister. Still, he could understand why Father Lawrence might take his interactions with Nancy the wrong way. Roy was usually rather reserved towards people, but if he felt comfortable with someone then there were very few boundaries. He often leaned on or generally got in the personal space of his friends, and was much more open with his emotions. Plus, it wasn't like he was blind. Nancy was a very attractive woman and he got easily flustered when she teased him.

"It's horrible," Roy grumbled, sitting down on the couch. "It's like Lucinda all over again."

Lucinda had been an actress Roy had worked with a few times. He'd done stunts for her boyfriend and she'd thought he was funny. Unfortunately, her boyfriend had been the jealous type, assuming Roy was trying to steal Lucinda away from him. Cordelia had thought the boyfriend was responsible for Roy's accident, but he and Lucinda had been off in a different city when it had happened. Besides, the man had been an asshole, but certainly wasn't the sort of person to inflict violence upon another person.

"I'm sure it'll be fine if you just explain the situation to him," Cordelia assured him, patting his back. Roy gave a vaguely affirmative grunt, running a hand through his hair. Suddenly, though, he sat up straighter, his eyes wide. 

"Fuck."

"What? What's wrong?" Immediately, Cordelia sat up as well.

"He's a priest," Roy said, tugging at his hair in nervousness. 

"Yes? Why?" Cordelia moved back a little, head tilted to the side and eyes narrowed in confusion.

"There's no way he'll be alright with me being gay."

" _That's_ what you're worried about?" Cordelia asked incredulously.

"YES!" Roy hissed, eyes darting over to her before quickly darting away. "He's never going to let me near Nancy or Sammy ever again!" His breathing started to pick up as panic set in. He had so few friends. He didn't want to lose these two. 

"Hey, don't go there." Cordelia put her hands on his shoulders. "Father Lawrence is a scary guy, but he's not an asshole. Besides, Nancy owns a tattoo parlor, Sammy works for Joey freaking Drew. I'm pretty sure you being gay is the most normal thing to come up."

"But what if-" 

"Hey. Look at me." Cordelia got up, walking over to stand in front of her brother. She leaned down so that they were looking at each other face to face. 

"It's going to be okay," she said, giving him a comforting smile. "Father Lawrence will absolutely not condemn you for being gay. I'm pretty sure he'll be happy to know you aren't sweet on Nancy. He already knows where you stand involving Sammy, so I'm sure it'll give him some peace of mind."

Roy gnawed at his lip. Cordelia had spent more time around Father Lawrence than he had, so she probably knew more about the man than Roy did, but he was still incredibly nervous about talking to the older man. Father Lawrence was an incredibly intimidating man and Roy was bad at talking to people even when he was comfortable with them. He was sure that somehow this was going to be a disaster. But, with his sister at his side, he headed over to the Lawrence residence to set the record straight. Nancy opened the door when they got there.

"Oh, hey! What are you two doing here?" She asked.

"Roy came to tell your dad that he's not attracted to women," Cordelia explained. "So that he'll stop glaring at him whenever he's around you."

"So soon? It was kind of fun watching him squirm." Nancy leaned on the doorframe. 

"You're the worst," Roy said flatly.

"And yet you still willingly hang out with me." Nancy gave him a wink. "Anyway, he's in the living room, come on." She stepped aside to allow the Bell siblings inside. Sure enough, Father Lawrence was seated on the couch, reading a book. Nancy gestured for Cordelia to follow her as she headed deeper into the house. 

"Good luck," Cordelia whispered, patting Roy's back before disappearing behind Nancy. Roy took a deep breath and approached the patriarch of the Lawrence family. Father Lawrence didn't immediately look up when Roy approached, but it was clear that he knew the elder Bell sibling was there. 

"Good afternoon, Mr. Bell," he said, eyes still on his book.

"Good afternoon, sir." Roy nodded his head in respect, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart. 

"Is there something I can do for you?"

"No. But there was something I wanted to tell you." He hoped his voice wasn't quivering as much as it was in his mind. God, had it gone up an octave? He felt even worse when Father Lawrence looked up from his book, fixing the former actor with his steely gaze. 

"What is it?" He asked. Roy let out an involuntary whimper before quickly trying to calm himself. 

"I...I just wanted to tell you..." He cursed his own social awkwardness. Why was this so hard? Father Lawrence stayed silent, watching him expectantly. 

"I have no romantic interest in your daughter." Roy managed to force the words out. "I'm gay." He braced himself for the tirade he expected would follow. But there was no tirade. There was no yelling. 

"Alright." Father Lawrence turned his gaze back to his book, as though nothing had happened. Genuine shock registered on Roy's face. 

"You're not...going to tell me I'm going to Hell?" He asked. 

"Of course not." Father Lawrence's expression darkened. "I detest when people twist God's word to suit their own benefits in that way. It is no business of mine or anyone else's what gender you're attracted to."

"Right. Of course." Roy nodded slowly before stumbling away. He managed to find Nancy and Cordelia after a few minutes. They were in one of the back rooms, talking about something or another. Roy wasn't really paying attention. 

"How'd it go?" Cordelia asked when she saw he was there. 

"It went...well? I think?" Roy sat down beside her, trying to process what had just happened. 

"What? Did you think he'd get angry?" Nancy leaned back. 

"He did." Cordelia nodded, moving over to hug her brother. "But I told him your father isn't that kind of man."

"I think you being gay is pretty much the most normal thing he's found out in the past few months." Nancy snorted. By this point, Roy was utterly exhausted. He allowed himself to fall asleep slumped against his sister. That was one less thing for him to worry about. Now if only they could figure out that business with Foster. 


	10. The Place That Isn't Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joshua has a strange dream

Joshua woke up in darkness. 

"What the-?" He sat up and looked around. All around him was nothing but blackness, darkness as far as the eye could see. The ground beneath Joshua felt slightly wet. When he lifted his hand, he found his palm black, as though stained with ink. It was easily wiped away onto his clothes.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" He called as he stood up. His voice reverberated back at him. He started to walk, trying to ignore the squelching sound that came from the ground when he moved. He didn't like this place, wherever it was. It reminded him of the labyrinth beneath Drew World, the one the strange version of Norman had been confined to. Had he somehow ended up down there? His first thought was that Alistair was somehow playing some sort of prank on him. It would be very much like the demon to fuck with him like this.

"Okay, asshole, very funny." He yelled. "I said you could teach me. I didn't say you could screw with me in order to 'unlock my true potential' or whatever." He received no response. While he did assume Alistair would immediately want to jump out and gloat, the fact that no one had answered didn't immediately rule out the demon. He rolled his eyes, sighing, then continued walking. Eventually, he'd probably find someone.

And he did find someone. But it wasn't a demon. It wasn't even a man. After a few minutes of walking, he saw someone in the distance. Immediately, he quickened his pace. There was someone else here! He wasn't alone!

"Hello?" He called out. "Hey, is someone there?" The figure turned towards his voice. He wasn't close enough to make out any features, but the stranger seemed to be a woman, a bit smaller than Joshua. As he got closer, he found he could see the woman's face. And, to his surprise, it was one he recognized. He stopped just short of the woman, his eyes wide. 

"Dee?"

"Hello, Joshy." She smiled softly. "It's so good to see you." She was definitely Cordelia, he could tell that from her face. But...She didn't look like the Cordelia he knew. Her body looked to be made of ink, her form indistinct and decidedly goopy. Only one of her eyes was visible, the other hidden by dripping ink that was likely supposed to represent her hair, and it was a pie-cut one like Bendy's. Overall, she looked like some failed clone of Alice Angel. 

"What happened to you?" Joshua asked. 

"Joey happened," Cordelia answered, her smile turning sad. 

"But, you quit working at the park! You're nowhere near him now!" He said. Not to mention, Henry and Esther were keeping a close eye on Joey to make sure he didn't do anything stupid again. Surprise registered on Cordelia's features before she began to laugh quietly.

"So, he managed to get Bendyland off the ground in your world." She laughed. "That must be interesting." 

"My...World?" Joshua frowned. "What...What does that mean?"

"Your world," Cordelia repeated. "The universe you come from."

"So that means...You're not the Dee I know?" Joshua said slowly. He'd never been particularly interested in the idea of parallel universes, or at least he'd never done any research into the subject, so he didn't know all the much about what they entailed.

Cordelia nodded. "In my universe, Joey went crazy and turned all the employees into ink creatures. I got out before it happened but..." She grimaced. "Well, I went back for Sammy. Unfortunately for me, the Sammy I met wasn't the Sammy I'd known."

"That's not too far off from what happened where I am." Joshua let out a bitter laugh. "The ink creature part, at least."

"I guess that's probably a constant in most universes where a Joey Drew exists." She laughed again, the laughter eventually petering off until she was left just staring sadly at him. 

"It really is so good to see you." She murmured, reaching out to touch his face with one melting hand.

"It's good to see you too." He reached tentatively up to hold her hand. "If you wouldn't mind me asking, where are we?"

"It's a sort of...place between places." Cordelia withdrew her hand, glancing about. "A nexus of between universes. I've met a bunch of different versions of myself here. Some of them married you." She giggled a bit, pulling a photograph from thin air. "Our children are quite lovely."

"But why am I here?" Joshua insisted, trying to hide his growing blush. He liked the idea of having a family with Cordelia someday. He was hoping for it, in fact. But with all this Creator business, he wasn't sure if it would be safe for him to stay with her. He wasn't sure if it would be safe for him to stay with anyone. 

"You're a Creator in your universe, correct?" Cordelia cast the photograph aside. "That means you have at least slightly limited access to the different versions of your universe." She turned her gaze back to him. It was weary and sad, but still soft and kind. "I'm glad it was you, and not someone else. I know you'll use your power well."

"I don't even know **how** to use them." Joshua's shoulders slumped a bit. 

"You'll learn." Cordelia moved closer, kissing his forehead with her cold, wet lips. "Look at the other universes. Learn from our mistakes. Don't let your world fall into despair." She pulled away, and for an instant...he saw a monster. Her form was melted even more, her head tilted at an angle that shouldn't have been possible, a wide Bendy smile covered most of her face with a pie-cut eye above it.

_**Then he woke up.** _

He sat up, breathing heavily and looking around wildly. He was at home in his bed. Cordelia was sleeping soundly beside him, her hair spread out across the pillow. He reached out for her, his hand hovering above her shoulder. She looked the same as she had when he went to sleep. Everything was fine. Everything was normal. He let out a shaking breath. What on Earth had that been about? 

"It was just a dream." He told himself. "Just a weird dream." He laid back down and tried to go to sleep, attempting to put the strange dream from his mind.


	11. Past Drabble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A drabble set in the past, before things really went downhill.

...

“Mr. Drew? What are you doing?”

“Ah, Murray, well,” Joey chuckled as he ushered the man away from the boy who was dozing off on the break room couch. “Mrs. Foster is dealing with those hooligans that keep bothering her and her son, and they’ve been at her house, and she doesn’t want Joshua to hear any of it, so he’s staying at the studio for a little bit.” Murray pursed his lips.

“And he’s not with Henry because….?”

“Henry actually lets the morons talk to him. I don’t.” Joey chuckled. “And boy do they talk, blathering on and on about the boy’s potential and how it’s imperative that he go with them, but not actually explain anything, like who and what they are and what they actually want to teach him.” Murray raised an eyebrow.

“Huh…” Joey waved a hand.

“Yeah, they remind me a little bit of those nuts you were hanging out with,” Joey mused playfully. “All talk and no walk, if that’s how the saying goes….” Joey chuckled. “But Joshua’s a good kid, so he’s not going to give us any trouble tonight,” Murray didn’t looked convinced but really didn’t want to deal with the ensuing argument with Joey; sure the child wasn’t as boisterous as Linda, but still, with the work they were doing, Murray really didn’t want any witnesses to his and Joey’s plans. “Now, what are we going to need this time around?” Joey smiled slightly as Murray took the bait and began to explain what they needed for the spell attempt tonight; while he trusted Murray on making Henry a Creator, there was a small part of him that was concerned about Murray’s apparent genuine dislike of the kids, which considering he was working for an animation studio was a bit of an issue. Joey shook his head; Murray was probably just worried about the spells he needed to do and would lighten up after their success.


	12. Lovely Little Lady

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two drabbles starring a small adorable kiddo :D

...

“UGH!!” Alistair groaned loudly as Lacie and Bertie hid their smiles as the former demon failed the ring toss again.

“You’re throwing too hard!” The child that Lacie and Bertie were keeping an eye on for Chris said simply. “Here, watch me!” The little girl took the ring and “tossed” the ring over the counter and it toppled onto the table. “Aww…”

“It’s alright, kiddo,” Lacie said, chuckling as she picked up the ring. “You’ve just got to add a bit more omph.”

“Omph?” Lacie chuckled.

“Not as strong as Murray’s friend here, but a little more power in your throw.” 

“Oooooh…” Bertie chuckled as he took the ring from Lacie. He handed it to her and the girl stuck her tongue out as she tried again, this time it hitting the bottle and knocking it over. She started giggling as Alistair rolled his eyes. “I made it fall over!”

“You certainly did,” Bertie chuckled. “What do you think Alistair?” If looks could kill, then Bertie would be dead 10 times over as the former demon forced a smile and looked at the little girl.

“She’s very strong indeed, I am in complete awe.” Thankfully the sarcasm went over the girl’s head, as she giggled, though Lacie gave a lidded glare to Alistair.

“You best be careful Mr. Alistair, her father might get the wrong idea and use you as a footstool.” Bertie let out a small chuckle as the girl lost it, laughing at the idea of her dad using the man as a footstool as Alistair fumed, wondering what he did to deserve this humiliation.

.

* * *

 

.

“Oh! Roy! I didn’t know you had a child!” Roy turned and slightly paled as he saw Lucinda and her boyfriend coming over to him.

“Huh?” Lucinda chuckled and gestured to the little girl passed out in his arms. “O-Oh! Ah, well, no, she isn’t mine, she’s the daughter of a friend of mine, I’m watching her while he’s working.” Lucinda chuckled as the girl stirred awake and the boyfriend rolled his eyes.

“You’re giving her ideas, Roy.” He said and Roy chuckled nervously as Lucinda shoved her boyfriend playfully.

“Well, I aim to please…” Roy chuckled lightheartedly as the girl looked at Lucinda and her boyfriend curiously. “Ruby, this is my friend Lucinda and her boyfriend, Richard,”

“Whoa…”

“They’re actors,”

“Like you!?” Lucinda obviously tried to hide her squeal of delight as the toddler’s eyes widened. “Whoa…”

“Alright, we should probably get going,” Richard teased. “She might actually try and take the kid for herself,” Lucinda gave him a look as Chris came over.

“Roy! I’m here!” He laughed nervously. “Sorry I was late; traffic’s a you know what,”

“Daddy!” Ruby squealed as Roy handed the toddler over to her father. “Daddy! Daddy! Mr. Roy knows really pretty actors!” Lucinda squealed in delight as Richard rolled his eyes playfully.

“Sounds like you two had a fun day.” Chris chuckled. “But how about we get home and get some dinner huh?”

“Can Mr. Roy come too?” Chris’s face went slightly pink as he chuckled.

“Well you gotta ask him, sweetie,” Ruby turned to Roy and gave puppy-dog eyes.

“Please?” 

“Of course he would!” Lucinda said, gently pushing Roy towards them. “Me and Richy are gonna to explore the rest of the park; enjoy dinner you lovebirds~” She quickly led her boyfriend away and Roy groaned internally, going red as Ruby looked confused.

“Daddy, what’s a lovebird?”


	13. Meeting the Folks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roy gets invited to see Ruby's mother and learn more about Chris's involvement in the magic community.
> 
> (basically I wanted to show how this universe varies from the other universe(s) Ruby's in, and also maybe set up more help in case more of the magical community affects the staff of the studio 'n what not)

...

“You must be Roy! Ruby’s been telling us all about you!” Roy smiled slightly as he was welcomed into the house, Chris leading him in. “Please, please! Come in; my name is Rosana,” Ruby was sitting in the living room, playing a puzzle with a man. “Marcos, he’s here!” The man perked up as did Ruby perked up and hopped up to her feet.

“Daddy!! Mr. Roy!” She sped over and tackled Roy’s legs. Chris chuckled as Roy picked her up and Marcos stood up.

“Mr. Bell, nice to-”

“Poppa, he’s Mr. Roy!” Ruby said, leaning back, looking at the man upside down, earning chuckles as Roy looked marginally confused. “Mr. Bell is when he’s in trouble.”

“Ah, right, right,” Marcos beamed and Roy noticed the rather large canines the man had. His jaw started to drop and Chris couldn’t help but snort. “Ah well...you noticed my teeth…” Marcos’s face flushed in embarrassment as Chris patted Roy’s back.

“It’s all good, Roy’s been getting Magic 101 with all the crap going down at Drew World.” Both adults made faces at that mention of the amusement park before Ruby’s mother gestured for them to sit down in the living room. “But anyways, Marcos is a werewolf.” Chris said casually, as if that was a normal thing for people to say. Roy looked at Chris in shock and the man shrugged.

“Mr. Roy, your face is so silly!” Ruby giggled as she hugged the former actor.

“You are blunt to a fault, Chris,” Marcos muttered, wiping his face before looking at Roy. “Admittedly I wasn’t actually turned or anything…”

“Child of Fenrir.” Rosanna explained. “Similar to magic users it’s one of those things that sometimes skips a generation.”

“And sometimes doesn’t,” Marcos laughed. “Chris was a saint when I had accidently transformed into a wolf during my appointment a few years back.” Chris laughed.

“Man, that was something else entirely…” He said, still chuckling. “I don’t know who was more scared, you or me…” He looked at Roy. “There’s some rules and regulation about the whole magic and who can know and what not, so we kinda got in trouble….but nothing too big.” He laughed as Rosanna rolled her eyes playfully.

“You two can be sitting together doing nothing and still cause trouble.” Ruby laughed as Roy chuckled softly, admittedly still a little overwhelmed. “But anyways, me and Marcos wanted to have a child but,”

“But you didn’t want to risk Ruby turning into a werewolf?” Roy finished and Ruby looked at him.

“Mr. Roy, don’t be silly!”  Ruby laughed. “Were-de-wolves have to be turfed!” Roy looked at Ruby before looking at the trio of adults for a translation.

“I technically can’t have children…” Marcos admitted sheepishly, turning a shade of red. “And Ruby’s not old enough to really understand…” He muttered and trailed off and Roy nodded before looking at Chris.

“So you are Ruby’s surrogate?” Chris nodded.

“If you want to get technical, yeah,” Chris said, before shrugging. “It’s really not that big of a deal, I just figured you deserved to know since you’ve been helping me out with Ruby…” Roy nodded slowly, a small smile on his face.

“Thank you Chris…” Chris’s face went pink as he playfully shoved the man as Ruby giggled. 

“Aw come on man, you’re making me blush!”


	14. A Surprise Guest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby meets a new 'friend' when she's taking her nap, and unintentionally helps him find 'his Joshy'.

...

“Why hello there little guest,” Ruby beamed brightly as she looked up at the robed person. “How did you get here?”

“I woke up here!” She said. “I laided down for my naptime and then I was here!”

“Oh that’s certainly something!” The robed man said as he crouched to her level. “You’re a very brave girl for coming down here all by yourself! Your parents must be very proud of you magic skills.” Ruby giggled and shook her head.

“I’m napping at Mr. Joshy’s house though!” Under the hood, the person’s eyebrow raised.

“Mr. Joshy huh?” The little girl nodded.

“Yup! I am staying at his house before he has to go to work at Drew World! It’s an amoo-amew-sent-park!” She nodded proudly.

“That’s wonderful!” He said before chuckling. “I used to know a Joshy as well you know,” Ruby’s eyes went wide in excitement.

“Really? Maybe it’s the same Joshy!” She said excitedly and the robed person chuckled. 

“Perhaps, it is. My Joshy was a very special boy, you know. He was able to make magic, though I don’t think he knew that he could.” Ruby nodded firmly, frowning rather adorably.

“Mr. Joshy does work with a bunny friend of Bendy’s….I don’t know if he’s magicky though…” The man chuckled.

“Well, I think I’ll have to take a look or have a friend of mine see if our Joshys are the same person, then.”

“Ok!” Ruby beamed before making a face. “Why are you wearing your bathrobe?”

“Heheh, it’s my special magical robe. It’s to help me concentrate my magic when I do my very important job.”

“Oh, like Momma has to do sometimes?” The robed person nodded. “Whoa...that’s so cool!”

“We’re alike in more ways little miss.” He chuckled. “You best get going though, I have some important duties to do now, and I think you need to finish your nap.” Ruby made a face but before she could ask, the man chuckled. “Don’t worry sweetheart, you’ll be back in bed in no time. I can tell.”

“Cause you’re a magicky man?!” The man chuckled.

“Yes I am!” The little girl waved before her astral projection vanished, the little girl waking back up in wherever ‘Mr. Joshy’s’ home was. Speaking of which…

“Antonio!” He ordered. “We made have a lead on our little Creator, see if we can send one of the boys to that eyesore Drew World.”

“We do?” The man chuckled darkly.

“We most certainly do.”


	15. Goofy Drabbles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A duo of drabbles set in the AU that don't really have a hold on the story at large; they're just some goofy ideas that didn't leave me be XD

….

“Who are you?” Cordelia blinked slowly as she looked up at the man who seemed so familiar, but she couldn’t quite get the name off the tip of her tongue. Admittedly she was still concerned about _where_ she was, considering she woke up in this seemingly empty void, but the man had spotted her.

“Cordelia….?” She said slowly and the man made a face of confusion.

“And you’re here because….?” She raised an eyebrow and place her hands on her hips.

“Does it look like I’d know that?” She retorted. “I just woke up here and you’re the only person here within eyesight.” There was a startled surprised look from the man, as if he wasn’t expecting that sass, before the man quickly fumbled as he tried to regain his composure, roughly pulling on his sports jacket.

“Hmph.” Cordelia couldn’t help but smile at the blush rising on his face before she realized why the man looked familiar. Her eyes widened in shock as she went closer.

“J-Joshy?!” The man looked at her in surprise.

“H-How do you know my name?!” He exclaimed, stepping back and Cordelia made a face.

“I’m _your_ girlfriend.” The man’s face went a shade of red that Cordelia had to admit was pretty funny as he stammered. She chuckled as she shook her head; partially wondering what she ate that cause her to dream such a bizarre dream, since Joshua’s behavior was in stark contrast to normal; attire aside, the man wasn’t as casual nor as calm as Joshua usually was, nor did Joshua usually react so strongly to her sass (unless she was being flirtatious, but that was another thing entirely and require strong drinks).

“I-I do not have a girlfriend, I don’t have the time nor need for a girlfriend.” He managed out, crossing his arms, his face still bright red. “Not here, and not in any parallel universe.” OK, now Cordelia knew she was dreaming as she crossed her arms, a smirk playing her lips.

“Sure….keep telling yourself that.” His face went darker as he huffed and turned away, earning some giggles. “You look adorable Joshy.”

“‘M not adorable. I am a Creator, not somethin’ adorable.” Cordelia raised an eyebrow curiously.

“Can’t you be an adorable Creator?” The deadpan glare she got made not asking directly about the Creator thing worth it as her boyfriend-from-another-universe looked absolutely adorable.

.

* * *

 

.

“What the heck happened to him?” Murray smiled sheepishly as Lacie pointed to Alistair, who was nursing an icepack to his jaw.

“He pulled an Icarus and crashed and burned.” Alistair glared at Murray as Lacie raised an eyebrow. “Nancy didn’t find his brand of humor very funny.”

“She is a child of a preacher.” Alistair mumbled under his breath. “She’s not supposed to react with violence…” Lacie snorted as she crossed her arms.

“She’s a Lawrence, Alistair, they’re not the traditional preacher and his family.” She said, fighting a smile.

“I noticed.”

“At least it was just here then.” Murray was silent as Lacie fought back a laugh. “I thought you were a demon, aren’t they supposed to be smart?” Alistair glared at Lacie.

“In my defense, she and her brother do not look like they could pack a punch.”


	16. Walking with Wally

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short little drabble with Wally as the star as he sees Ruby out and about

…

“Oh, hey there kiddo!” Wally chuckled as he spotted Ruby walking next to a very large-looking dog. “Uh, what are you doing?”

“I’m walking with Poppa!” She said proudly before turning to the dog. “Poppa, this is Mr. Wally! He’s a friend of Daddy.” The dog seemed to nod as Wally chuckled in a bit of confusion.

“Wow, that’s a pretty grown up thing to do by yourself…”

“Oh! Poppa’s keeping an eye on me Wally, I’m not by myself!” She giggled and Wally blinked slowly, still completely lost. “You can walk with us too if you want!” Wally quickly nodded, not wanting to have the girl by herself, even if the huge-ass dog next to her looked like it could take down armed men without breaking a sweat.

“Yeah, that’s a good plan Ruby…” He said and they continued to walk around the block, Ruby happily talking to both ‘Poppa’ and Wally as if it was completely normal to be walking a dog twice the size of her by herself. Wally was still confused beyond belief, especially since the canine was calmly herding Ruby and wasn’t a bundle of energy he was expecting. Soon enough, they were back at the house and Wally helped open the door as Ruby ran in.

“Thank you Mr. Wally!” She said happily as she took off her shoes. “Poppa, I’m going to get juice for us!”

“Uh, kiddo, I don’t think dogs can have juice…” Wally started to say before seeing the large canine seem to chuckle. Wally’s jaw dropped as the canine shifted into a grown human male, who stood up and dusted off his shirt.

“I appreciate the concern, but I think I’ll be fine, Mr. Franks. I’m Marcos, by the way.” He said as Wally made some blabbering noises, obviously trying to process what he just saw, earning some snickering. “I know Chris and Roy have mentioned Ruby and the rest of the family, right?”

“Chris didn’t mention this…” Wally managed to squeak out as Ruby came back carrying three juice boxes.

“Here Poppa! Here Mr. Wally!”

“Thank you Ruby,” Marcos chuckled as he took his juice box.

“You’re a werewolf!?” Wally squeaked as the juice box was put in his hand. “How-What-Huh-”

“Yep! Poppa’s a were-de-wolf!” Ruby said before giggling. “Did you think Poppa was a puppy Mr. Wally?” Wally struggled to make a coherent sentence as Ruby lost it and Marcos chuckled.

“It’s alright, it’s not like you would’ve known.” Wally blinked slowly as the man chuckled. “But since I figured you know Chris, it’s fine. I’m actually a Child of Fenrir, a type of werewolf.”

“But the clothes…”

“Fenrir’s children are more like shapeshifters, so we get to keep the pants.” Marcos chuckled before turning to his daughter. “Ruby, what other werewolves are there?” Ruby scrunched her up face before she beamed.

“There’s Likey-cans! They’re like the movies ones that Miss Nancy watches, where they are wolfy and they have to get new clothes all the time and they only transform once in a while. And there’s shamany magic and curses, but Momma says I’ll learn about that stuff later….” Marcos nodded.

“That’s right sweetheart, good job!” He laughed, ruffling the girl’s hair, who beamed brightly as she sipped at her juice box.

“Oh...ok…” Wally managed out.

“I’m surprised that you don’t know this stuff...you did work for Joey Drew. The man's not exactly subtle about what he thinks he knows about the magical community.” Wally made a face and rubbed the back of his head.

“Yeah, don’t remind me… as well as the guy paid us, he’s not exactly high on my list…” He shuddered at the memory of the night Joey had agreed to his meeting to discuss the fact he was the only janitor, only to be forcibly transformed into Boris.

“I see…” Marcos said slowly noting the man’s change in demeanor. “Well, between him and Murray Hill, it’s a miracle that park is still open.”

“Why Poppa?” Ruby asked and Marcos chuckled as he picked up the girl.

“Cause there’s very important rules that people who use magic have to follow. If they don’t follow it, then they have to see the officers and have to face punishment for their actions.”

“Oooooh…” Wally smiled softly as the girl nodded. “Mr. Hill doesn’t likes rules...he keeps trying to avoid doing Misses Lacie’s bottle throws the way it’s supposed to be done.” Wally feigned shock.

“Oh that’s not good...Lacie’s a stickler for the rules and a scary lady when she’s mad…” Ruby giggled. “Even scarier than those officers, I bet. The best thing to do is get outta there when she’s mad!” Ruby snickered as Marcos chuckled.

“Sounds like you have experience there.” Wally laughed brightly.

“I can’t confirm or deny that!”


	17. Snatching the Attention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've been on a bit of "A Hat in Time" Kick so here's a goofy reference to the game with Bertie telling Ruby a story before her father picks her up.

...

“And then?” Ruby was bouncing in Bertie’s lap, the child extremely excited for the story the man was telling her while they were waiting for Chris to pick her up. Bertie chuckled.

“Well, she defeated the scoundrel of the forest of course!” Alistair glared at Murray, who was trying to not laugh, since Bertie was telling a story about a demon getting defeated in a rather comical way. “And the demon scurried to hide under a tree, hoping to avoid the Traveller’s wrath further, though she was thought he was playing a game!”

“Highly illogical. The contract would’ve made it impossible for her to attack the demon,” Lacie rolled her eyes in annoyance; Bertie was doing the former demon a favor by distracting Ruby, and he was still complaining.

“It’s a contract signed by a 10 year old. It’s not exactly legal binding to begin with.” Alistair glared at Lacie as Ruby giggled.

“Speaking of contracts, the scoundrel of the forest realized that perhaps he could get away with one more contract!” Bertie said, whispering softly before making a ‘spooky’ voice. “‘How about one last contract!’ The creature cried out, summoning a contract out of thin air as he approached the Traveller. ‘You get out of here and we don’t see you again!’ He handed the contract to the girl with a hurried huff. ‘Here! I’ll make it easy for you!’ With a snap, he stamped the contract, and waited impatiently as she read over the contract.”

“But she didn’t sign it, did she?” Bertie smiled.

“Even better Ruby! She scribbled over the contract and wrote that the scoundrel would have to become her BFF! And then she signed it!” Ruby shrieked with laughter as Alistair was understandably confused.

“What?”

“That’s kinda cute admittedly,” Murray said as Bertie told Ruby about the creature’s reaction, the girl shrieking with laughter.

“That’s not how contracts work. Especially for demons. That doesn't make any sense!” Alistair said, shaking his head.

“It’s a fairytale,” Lacie pointed out. “It’s not supposed to make sense.” Alistair made a face. “Would you prefer to go back to her kicking your ass?” Alistair glared at Lacie.

“She was not!”

“Uh-huh. Whatever helps you sleep at night Alabaster.”

“It’s ALISTAIR!” Alistair attempted to attack the woman, but was quickly manhandled into an headlock. Bertie paused in his story as Lacie proceeded to give the former demon a noogie, said demon calling her many an ancient insult while Murray was trying to make sure both of them weren’t going to hurt themselves.

“Maybe Mr. Alistair can sign a BFF contract.” Ruby offered and Bertie chuckled.

“I doubt he’d sit still long enough to sign the contract, Ruby, but it’s a good idea.” He said, taking her braid apart and rebraiding it to make it smoother. “Perhaps down the line you can make a contract for him, hmm?” Ruby beamed brightly.

“That sounds like a great idea Mr. Bertie!”


	18. Surprise Phone Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A small drabble where Chris calls Ruby's mother and updates her on the whole....astral projection thing....

...

“Oh! Chris! What’s up?”

“Hey, you and Marcos got a sec? It’s kind of important…” Rosanna made a face before looking at the concern looks of her parents and husband. 

“My parents are here, Chris…”

“I’m sure they’d get a kick out of this, but I’ll be brief anyways; Ruby can apparently astral project and some dude apparently wants to talk to her.” Rosanna blinked slowly before she spoke.

“Chris, that’s impossible; astral projection is nearly impossible to do without training, and we checked with the doctors and they said she doesn’t have any magic in her.”

“Well, Murray Hill and his mouse looking-boyfriend say otherwise.” 

“Murray Hill?” Rosanna asked slowly. “And his...boyfriend?”

“Yeah, I think the guy’s name is Alibar-Alistar-Alabaster? Something Ainsley.” Rosanna pursed her lips, remembering reading the tabloids about  _ that _ individual.

“Joey Drew was in contact with  _ him _ ? I can understand Hill, his family is rather prideful of their magical talent and “guidance” but Alistair Ainsley? That man is a dangerous cultist, a highly powerful magic user. He-”

“He’s a meanie!” Ruby’s voice piped up from Chris’s end. “He keeps his feelings bottled up!” Chris chuckled as Rosanna raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

“Apparently our little lady had a few choice words for that dork.” He chuckled before shaking his head. “Ms. Castelia will probably contact you or me later, but I figured you should know asap…”

“Do you know who wanted to talk to her?” 

“I dunno, the two teenagers that were trying to break into the office didn’t say.” Rosanna groaned softly, wiping her face.

“Just be extra careful until we have the meeting with her, alright?”

“Of course! You be careful too, and don’t hesitate to send the big guy after them.” Rosanna laughed as she imagined Chris’s face; even with facing something potentially terrifying, he was still optimistic and cheerful. 

“I’ll keep it in mind Chris...you two have a good evening and we’ll see you soon.”

“Bye Bye Momma!” She smiled as she heard her daughter’s voice, thought she couldn’t help but feel a pit in her stomach; magical talents like that, while not as wanted or as rare as the talents of Creators, were certainly something you had to keep an eye out. She sighed softly.

“At least that’ll solve where she goes to school now…”


	19. Maria Drabbles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A pair of drabbles starring Henry's wife and Linda's mother, Maria

...

“Gentlemen.” Joshua and Linda hid behind her mother as she stood in front of the older men. “I better get a good explanation for you bothering my children.”

“Your children? You only have-” One of the men said, only to get harshly nudged. “Ow!”

“Ma’am. We weren’t bothering them, we just had a few questions for the boy, that’s all.”

“They were telling Joshy that he had to go with them!” Linda piped up before hiding behind her mother under the glare of the two men.

“Oh really now?” Maria didn’t look impressed.

“Ma’am, you do not under-”

“You have two seconds to start leaving before I call the cops on you both.”

“We need that-”

“Fine.” The second man glared at the woman as he led his partner away, muttering that they would come back later.” Maria let out a long sigh as she watched the men get in their car and leave the park. Once out of sight she turned to the two kids.

“Are you two alright?”

“Yeah…” Joshua said softly.

“They’re stupid.” Linda said. “And kinda scary….” Maria smiled softly as she got to their eye level.

“Well, you two did a good job running to find me.” She smiled and hugged the two. “How about we go grab ice cream early, huh?”

“Could we see Daddy and Uncle Joey?” Maria chuckled and ruffled her daughter’s hair.

“Well, I suppose we can stop by and check and make sure those two are behaving.” Both Joshua and Linda chuckled, while Maria made a mental note to let Joshua’s mother know about this event; there was something  about all these recent ‘visitors’ that didn’t sit well with her, but she couldn’t quite place what just yet.

.

* * *

.

“Henry, darling, can I ask you something?” Henry looked at his wife while the two of them were preparing dinner one night.

“Yeah?”

“That new hire at the studio…”

“Murray Hill?” His wife nodded and Henry frowned. “Did he do some-”

“No! No, of course not Henry!” Maria said quickly. “He’s just...I don’t know...there’s just something about him that rubs me the wrong way...Linda and Joshua both say he’s been asking them about ‘Creators’ or whatever...and Joshua’s been so nervous about going back to the studio by himself, but with those men harassing Lill-” Henry smiled softly as he pecked Maria on the cheek, and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“Norman told me that Murray has been a little weird and hasn’t been working as much as he thinks...I’ll talk to Joey.” Maria smiled softly, grateful that it wasn’t just her that seemed to think that something was off with this new hire.

“Tomorrow?” Henry smiled as he pecked his wife on the cheek.

“That’s what I was thinking, darling. And I’ll be careful, don’t worry love; we’ll get it sorted out.”


	20. Pride at Drew World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's June and Drew World is celebrating Pride!

The toons wearing the nonbinary flag comes from [this](https://ask-batmw.tumblr.com/post/184626989055/ugh-this-took-me-a-whole-friggin-day-to)

* * *

 

"What...What is that?"

"It's a pride flag," Murray said, pausing hanging up the flag. Alistair wrinkled his nose. 

"Alright, but why are you hanging it in the _park_?" He folded his arms. "I would think Drew would be worried about losing investors or whatever."

"That was a concern for me at one point, but I've decided life is too short to hide who you are!" Alistair flinched a bit as Joey appeared and threw an arm around the former demon's shoulder. He was wearing a rainbow bowtie and had his cheeks painted with the asexual flag. Murray smiled slightly. He'd been a little surprised when Joey had announced he wanted to do Pride at the theme park, but it had been a welcome suggestion. Given everything that had happened as of late, it made sense that Joey would want to abandon his more profit-focused ways. 

"Don't touch me." Alistair shoved Joey off, dusting off his clothing. He was wearing some of Murray's old clothing since his original outfit had been ruined due to circumstances he would not disclose and he refused to go shopping. He looked a bit ridiculous since he was thinner and shorter than Murray. Like a child playing dress up. The real Alistair had actually been a rather stocky individual, but the demon happened to be incredibly vain and so had taken the liberty to trim a bit of the body fat. Now that he was human, though, the body's natural build was creeping back in. 

"Be nice," Murray warned him. 

"I **am** being nice." Alistair huffed. "I didn't even try to attack him!" Murray gave him an incredulous look. 

"Come to think of it, do demons have genders?" Joey asked, starting to dig around in his bag. "I think I have an agender t-shirt in here somewhere."

"Do you want agender or non-binary?" Murray glanced back at Alistair. "You like identifying with a gender sometimes, right?"

"Mm. Genderfluid might work better then." Joey nodded. "Or maybe demi-gender? Not sure I have a shirt for that."

"I don't want a shirt," Alistair grumbled. He was still peeved that he had to be human now, stuck in one body for the rest of his life. He didn't even really remember what he'd originally looked like, or if he'd been a he. 

"Just give him a genderqueer shirt," Murray said.

"I don't need a shirt!"

He got a shirt, much to his chagrin. Murray managed to wrestle him into a genderqueer shirt and painted the pansexual flag on the former demon's cheeks. Alistair acted like this was a great inconvenience to him, but Murray caught him looking at himself in some of the shop windows, touching the flags on his cheeks tentatively. Murray himself had a rainbow shirt and the demisexual flag on his cheeks.

After hanging the flags, he and Alistair ended up following Joey around as he handed out shirts and flags. Admission prices had been lowered for June, so there were more people than there usually were. The attendees were all rather surprised to see Joey Drew running around and handing out t-shirts. He hadn't been seen in the park for months, and now he was suddenly around, just running around. Quite a few of the shirts showed the toons of Joey Drew Studios wearing various flags, most notably being the nonbinary flag. It was honestly pretty adorable to see Joey explain the meaning of the flags to the children and their eyes light up when they realized that some of the descriptions applied to them.

"This is stupid," Alistair muttered, although not loud enough that any of the children could hear. "Gender is just a construct created by humanity."

"Yeah, well, it's a construct society takes way too seriously sometimes," Murray shrugged, a wry smile spreading across his face. "It's important for people to be able to take pride in who they are, especially since it's not something they can change."

"Welcome to humanity." Alistair made a small noise of irritation as Stella popped up, wearing a bisexual flag shirt.

"Oh joy. **_You're_** here. Don't you have anything better to do than bother me?"

"Don't be conceited," Stella replied with a sneer. "I'm not here for you."

"Why are you here today?" Murray asked. "I thought you were coming tomorrow."

"I was. But my client for today canceled so I had some free time." 

"Which one was today?"

"The lady who thought her daughter was possessed." Stella's nose wrinkled at the thought of the woman. "Turns out she was just being a bitch about her daughter not listening to her. Her husband called to cancel." 

"Now that's the humanity I'm used to." Alistair sighed contentedly. Murray rolled his eyes and smacked the back of his head. 

"Anyway, I invited Alex to come along too, but he's got some work he needs to finish up." Stella continued. "So it's kind of up in the air whether he'll be able to make it or not."

"I'm sure it would be nice for you two to spend some time together~" Murray wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. 

"Shut up." Stella's face went bright red and she punched her brother's shoulder. Alistair snickered, rather glad to have the attention off of him. He turned his attention away from the bickering siblings, scanning the crowd for familiar faces. Allison and Dave were entering the park, holding hands and laughing to one another. Neither were wearing flags, but he supposed their relationship was enough of a scandal. He wasn't sure why his heart felt heavy when he looked at them. Surely he couldn't be jealous...He shook his head. No. That couldn't be it. He kept looking. There were Cordelia, Joshua, Roy, Chris, and Ruby. Both Cordelia and Roy were wearing the bisexual flag, Cordelia on her bow and Roy on his bowtie, although he was also wearing a rainbow blazer. Ruby was wearing a rainbow dress, which she honestly looked rather cute in.

"Damn that child and deceptive adorability." Alistair narrowed his eyes. Ruby managed to catch sight of him, waving excitedly. Despite himself, Alistair waved back. Thankfully, they didn't come over. The group continued into the park to enjoy their day. 

"Hey." He jumped and spun around as a hand rested on his shoulder. 

"Whoa!" Murray put his hands up, laughing. "Jumpy much?"

"What do you want?" Alistair asked, folding his arms and hunching his shoulders. 

"Joey told me that Father Lawrence is holding a fundraiser at his church later to raise money for LGBT causes," Murray explained. "I'm thinking of heading over there at some point. Do you want to come?" 

Alistair blinked. "I'm a demon. I don't _do_ churches."

"You're not a demon anymore." Murray chuckled, patting Alistair's shoulder again. "Besides, you need to work on actually interacting with other people." Alistair considered this for a moment. 

"They won't...judge the flags? Religious organizations aren't usually very tolerant of this sort of thing."

"Father Lawrence isn't like that, from what I've heard."

"Well..." Alistair chewed at his lip, suddenly looking very small. "...Alright. But I can't promise I won't spontaneously combust."

"You won't," Murray assured him.

"Hey! C'mere! We're going to do that dunk game with Drew!" Stella yelled. She and a group of people had gathered around a dunk tank, which Joey was slowly clambering into. Alistair's eyes lit up with malicious glee. 

"I want to dunk him."

"I know you do." Murray sighed, gently pushing him toward the tank. "Come on. Let's do this."

Joey had quite a lot of events planned for the month, so he expected he was going to be kept pretty busy. But today was for him. Him and Alistair. 


	21. Adventures in Babysitting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A pair of drabbles starring Alistair and Ruby, with Ruby learning from the movies, and Alistair reluctantly cheering the little girl up

...

“This is you. The red is your badness level.” The toddler said firmly, holding up the drawing of the gingerbread-looking man shape that was colored mostly red. “And it’s an awful lot for somebody your size.” Murray banged his fist on the door jam, obviously trying to stop himself from falling over and fighting not to start laughing as Lacie was smiling, obviously daring Alistair to attempt to ruin the toddler’s day. Alistair pursed his lips.

“I don’t think I quite agree with that.” He said, obviously choosing his words very carefully. “You know that I am bad.” The toddler sighed dramatically.

“You’re not _all_ bad though; you’ve just got an awful lot of bad.” She said as if it was obvious. “But that’s why I have the chart!” She pointed to the chart. “We’re going to keep an eye on your badness level and see if it goes down.”

“And if it doesn’t?” Was the deadpan retort as the child looked sheepish.

“I dunno, Momma and Poppa and I didn’t get that far in the movie yet.” Alistair blinked slowly before walking to a nearby wall and repeatedly banging his head against the wall, causing Murray to lose it completely, while Lacie was a bit more subtle in her laughter, much to the confusion of the toddler.

.

* * *

 

.

“What are you doing?” Alistair asked as the girl hid behind the man, uncharacteristically timid as they walked towards the food court.

“Shh!” The toddler hissed quietly. “I don’t want her to see me!” Alistair made a face before the apparent offender had walked past and Ruby let out a sigh of relief.

“Care to explain?” He asked bemusedly and Ruby looked at her shoes in embarrassment and Alistair made a face, definitely wanting to know what would actually concern the toddler when she had a, former admittedly, demon as a reluctant babysitter when apparently everyone else in the park that Chris knew was busy. Granted, Chris only knew Alistair as the “boyfriend” of Murray and while he didn’t trust the two, he trusted Lacie and Bertie’s judgement (and ability to hide the body but semantics).

“Um...promise not to tell?” She asked quietly and Alistair sighed dramatically.

“I suppose.” Normally that would get a retort from the toddler, but instead the toddler just sighed softly.

“She doesn’t like that I don’t have any magicky stuff when Momma and Poppa do…” She whispered. “Sometimes she comes over randomly and she and Momma argue about what’s best for me when they think I’m napping or playing upstairs with Poppa…And she really doesn't like Daddy...” Alistair frowned slightly.

“Seems...shi-er-rude, rather rude.” He said slowly as the two of the them grabbed a snack and sat near the carnival games, deciding not to point out that the toddler _did_ have magical powers, though not the most typical magic most people had at her age.

“Yeah, even grandma and grandpa don’t really like her cause she’s so pushy. But…” Ruby looked at her food sadly. “Is it bad that I don’t have magicky stuff like Mr. Murray and Momma? Or like Poppa?” Alistair internally cursed the fact that this toddler was tugging at his non-existent heartstrings.

“Bah, Murray’s magic isn’t all that.” Alistair muttered, earning a curious look from the toddler. “Remember when I said that we shared a body once?”

“Yeah…?”

“It was because he wanted more magic that he got in contact with me.” Ruby scrunched her face in confusion. “Trust me, he could barely summon a fireball without my help.”

“Oh…” Alistair made a face.

“Does this lady know Murray or something? You don’t sound convinced.”

“Well, she talks a lot about Mr. Murray a lot…” Ruby admitted softly. “She sometimes said that since she and her husband taught Murray all he knows and that means they’d help me ‘unlock my po-ten-tall’.” She nibbled on the snack and Alistair rolled his eyes, recognizing who the woman was.

“Considering that’s Murray’s mother, I think she’s a bit biased.” Ruby looked up at Alistair in surprise. “Murray used to tell me about her all the time; she certainly likes to hear her own voice and it’s clear where Murray got his Icarus-tendencies.”

“Icky-what?” Alistair sighed.

“Icarus. He was a child in Ancient Greece.”

“Like Heracles? And Ms. Xena!?” Alistair made a face.

“Who’s Xena?” Ruby gasped.

“You don’t know Ms. Xena! Miss Stella and Aunt Nancy have been showing me the show and it’s about this lady who has this look circle sword and she fights bad guys and evil monsters!” Ruby excitedly started talking about the show, much to Alistair’s confusion, though there was a small part of him that was grateful the child seemed to cheer up.

Not that anyone would know about that.


	22. Former Demon Denies Being Besties with Small Child, More at 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Murray stumbles on Lacie teasing his boyfriend, when the latter gets a gift from a friend.

...

“You’re like her third dad or her uncle, or something,”

“I am not!” Murray raised an eyebrow as he spotted Alistair arguing with Lacie, who was smirking as she held up a paper card. “I do not even tolerate that brat! And she doesn’t like me!”

“Then explain this then?” Lacie teased before spotting Murray. “Oh , you've got to check this out Murray; your boyfriend got a card.”

“He is not-” Alistair sputtered as Murray came over and looked at the card; on it was very clumsily written ‘Thank You’ card by Ruby with a picture of her and what Murray assumed to be Alistair at the best dramatization of Drew World that a toddler could do. Murray opened it, a smile on his face as he saw that on the inside there was childish handwriting of Ruby thanking Mr. ‘A Lilly Stair’ for being her babysitter, along with another drawing of her, Alistair, Murray, Lacie, and Benton in line for a Bendy themed ride.

“This is adorable.” Murray chuckled as Alistair groaned.

“You’re not helping.” He grumbled. “I can’t believe that brat! I am not some-”

“You almost lost a fight with Rachel because you took offense to the idea that she watch Ruby for the afternoon.” Alistair went red as Murray looked at Lacie in surprise.

“W-What? W-When did that happen?” Lacie smirked as Alistair huffed and crossed his arms.

“You were helping Bertie with the teacup ride when that happened.” Lacie explained, easily holding the angry former demon back at arm’s length when he attempted to stop her. “Rachel thankfully was a good sport about it, but man, she would’ve taken him to the cleaners. And boy the earful he got from Ruby, she may like you, but she’s not going to let you get off scot free.” Lacie removed her hand and as Alistair stumbled, she got him into a headlock and gave the man a noogie.

“LET ME GO!”

“Nope, you’re part of the Drew Studios family now, you’re going to have to put up with all of us now.” Murray hid his smile as Alistair tried to get out of the headlock to no avail, complaining all the while about the ridiculousness of being treated like a child; this family, even though brought together by strange circumstances, was certainly something else, wasn’t it?


	23. Tour of the Playroom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While her parents are talking, Ruby decides to give her two friends a tour of her playroom and Murray gives his boyfriend some teasing.

...

“And this is my playroom!” Ruby said as she led Alistair to the brightly colored room, Murray following while Ruby’s parents talked. 

“It’s rather bright…” Alistair noted.

“I like it! And at night, the stars glow!” Ruby explained, pointing to the stars. 

“Enchanted?” Ruby shook her head.

“Daddy says they’re painted with ‘glow-in-the-dark’ paint!” Alistair nodded slowly as Murray chuckled, picking up some of the plush toys.

“Lots of Bendy toys…though, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Bendy wear this…” Murray said, holding a Bendy plush, though the demon was wearing a chef coat-looking outfit. Ruby giggled.

“Mr. Joshy gave me them! He said that when he was little he got the proto-thingys from Mr. Shawn and Mr. Henry...” Her face fell as she mentioned the man.

“Ruby?” Murray said softly, as Alistair sat next to the girl, accepting her hug.

“Why did he do that?” She asked timidly.

“Cause he’s an idiot.”

“Alistair!” Murray made a face as Alistair coolly glared at Murray.

“He is. He let his worry over Joshua to override any common sense.”

“But we don’t-”

“Joshua will be fine.” Alistair said firmly. “He is a Creator; he’s more valuable to them alive then dead.” Ruby made a face.

“A Creator? Mr. Joshy doesn’t make things though...I mean, he is a tattoo artist but I think they’re just called artists…” Alistair chuckled before he gently explained the concept of Creators to Ruby, Murray smiling softly.

“But what about the Creators in Drew World?” She asked and Murray chuckled nervously.

“Well, they aren’t actual Creators...they’re the higher security members...Joey thought the name had a clever ring with it, considering the position and stuff, and I wasn’t going to argue with him about it…”

“Oooooh ...ok…”

“Because that wouldn’t be confusing.” Alistair muttered sarcastically. “I’m looking for the Creator, but not the guys in the gaudy outfits!” Ruby giggled as Murray went red.

“Hey, I worked hard on those designs!”

“Really?” Alistair asked, raising an eyebrow. “ _ Really _ ? I’m fairly certain that a child could do better.” He smirked and looked at Ruby. “Let’s test that out, shall we? You have coloring supplies, right?” Ruby beamed brightly and scrambled to her feet and scurried to the location of the crafting bin. Murray looked at Alistair. “Don't.”

“She’s wrapped you around her finger.” Ruby turned from the box to see Alistair attempting to wrestle Murray, face red as he was failing miserably in pinning Murray down, who was laughing and teasing the former demon. She shook her head, though she was smiling; those two were certainly silly.


	24. Sweets and a Sunburn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short drabble where Alistair forgets that little tidbit regarding his new form and Ruby tries to help him feel better.

...

“What are you doing?” Alistair asked slowly as he watched Lacie lather something on Ruby.

“I’m getting sunblock on!” Ruby said, her face scrunched up as Lacie wiped the block on her face. 

“What?”

“To prevent her from getting a sunburn.” Lacie explained before tossing the bottle at Alistair who clumsily caught it. “You’ll need it with the amount of sun that’s happening today.” Alistair made a face.

“I sincerely doubt it. This body never burnt before.” Lacie opened her mouth to argue before closing it and shaking her head.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

.

* * *

 

.

_Several Hours Later_

“Ow! Ow! Ow!” Alistair whined as Murray was rubbing aloe on the man’s arms. “Stop pressing so hard!”

“I’m not pressing at all…” Murray said gently. “You’ve just got a pretty bad burn…” Alistair made a face.

“I don’t see how I got burned! This body never…” Alistair trailed off as he realized why he never got burned before and slumped. Murray sighed as Ruby and Lacie came over, Ruby holding two ice cream cones and focusing very carefully on not spilling the cones before handing one to Alistair. 

“Here! I want you want to have an ice cream cone!” Ruby said cheerfully. “I know it won’t make your sunburn go away, but ice cream always makes me feel better after a hot day!” Alistair stared at the little girl before chuckling and taking the cone.

“You are a strange little one, you know that?”

“I know!” Ruby beamed brightly. “But the best kinda people are Mr. Alistair!” Murray smiled as Lacie subtly took out her phone and got some photos of the two, Ruby explaining the flavors she picked to the demon.


	25. A Meeting in the Park

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joshua and Linda find a familiar face in the park and decide to confront the man and get to the bottom of things.

...

“You’re the Skunk Man’s friend.” Antonio turned and looked at the two children who were staring at him; the girl glaring at him, while the boy was nervously behind her, obviously not entirely on board with the idea. Antonio let out a chuckle as he studied Joshua and his friend.

“That’s the first time I’ve heard Gethin be called that…” He admitted as he turned to face the kids. 

“Why are you here?”

“It’s a park.” Antonio said. “I am allowed to hang out in a park, after all, someone’s got to make sure that the squirrels behave.”

“Y-You’re not going to try and talk to me?” Joshua asked timidly.

“Well, that’s kinda hard not to do when you two started the conversation.” The girl and Joshua exchanged looks and Antonio chuckled. “But no, I’m not going to try and convince you to come with me back to where I stay, at least not for today, ok?”

“You promise?” Antonio place a hand over his heart.

“I do solemnly swear.”

“I think that means he does promise,” The girl whispered before nodding and looking at him. “You’re a lot nicer than that Skunk Man Mister.” Antonio chuckled.

“You can call me Antonio, you two, and Gethin’s not exactly the most skilled in talking with kids admittedly.” Antonio explained gently. “He’s used to talking with teenagers and adults so he forgets that sometimes he’s talking about stuff only high schoolers know about. Well, that and sometimes he forgets that not everybody can read his mind and know what he’s thinking.”

“He’s kinda scary…” Joshua admitted softly and Antonio smiled gently.

“I’ll let you two in on a bit of a secret, ok?” He said, leaning closer to them. “Gethin’s actually pretty scared of you two…” The two didn’t look convinced and Antonio chuckled. “I know it doesn’t seem like it, but you see, he used to be friends with your dad Joshua, and he wants to reconnect with him, but unfortunately Gethin and your mom had a really bad argument before they left college and they don’t like each other.”

“Can’t they just talk it out?” Linda asked and Antonio chuckled. 

“See, that’s what I told him too, but apparently the both of them have thick heads.” The kids chuckled as Antonio made a face. “And like I said, Gethin’s kinda awkward so obviously he hasn’t been helping his case at all.”

“Yeah, he’s like a super villain!” Linda stated, crossing her arms. “I mean sometimes he bothers Joshy’s mom and dad at home so Joshy has to stay with Mr. Joey at the studio and stuff!”

“Yeah…” Antonio nodded slowly, musing on that information.

“How about this? I’ll talk to Gethin and try to get him to lay off for a while until I can convince him to just talk it out with you mom, ok Joshua?” Joshua furrowed his brows, deep in thought, before nodding slowly.

“I-I’d like that idea...thank you Mr. Antonio.” Joshua said softly and Antonio smiled gently.

“You’re a good kid, don’t forget that, ok?” Antonio leaned back in his car as the sound of the ice cream truck pulled into the park. “You two better hurry before they sell out of the pops.” The two kids exchanged looks of excitement before running off. Antonio smiled as he watched them run off before letting out a sigh; sure he didn’t fully explain the reasoning behind Gethin and Lillian’s little spats, but he figured that wasn’t his position to tell, and frankly, he hoped that his explanation would help ease some of the concerns for the two kids.


	26. Not His Best Skill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little drabble starring Roy as he gets asked about his relationship with Chris and Nancy realizing that her friends are major dolts.

...

“So~” Roy turned and looked at Nancy, who had sat next to him as they watched Ruby play around with the other children in the oversized playground designed after the junkyard in one of Bendy’s shorts. Roy raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

“You know, how’s it going between you and Chris?”

“Fine? Why wouldn’t it be?” Nancy stared at Roy before looking at Lucinda, who was at the park to help her boyfriend watch his nieces, who were playing with Ruby at the moment. “Nancy?”

“Has he always been this freaking oblivious?” Roy opened his mouth as Lucinda giggled brightly, earning an eyebrow raise from her boyfriend as he lowered his book.

“He and Richard are two peas in a pod.” Both men’s faces went red.

“Hey!” Lucinda shrugged.

“It’s the truth Richy; I mean way you two missed obvious signs could make a full-length rom-com!” She chuckled before pecking her boyfriend on the cheek. “But regardless, you’re my oblivious cutie~” Richard went a deep shade of red before grumbling and going back to his book, trying to hide his blushing face as Roy rubbed the back of his head.

“I pay attention, I know when people are looking at me, and whatever,” Nancy wiped her face, stifling a groan as Lucinda chuckled nervously.

“Roy, that’s not what Nancy’s talking about…” She explained. “She’s referring to someone liking you. Like a lot.” Roy blinked and turned to Nancy.

“Me and Chris are just friends though, good friends, yeah, but he doesn't like me in that kind of way.” 

“You sure?” Roy nodded, still confused by the ladies and their actions as Nancy groaned, rolling her eyes.

“Looks like I’m getting Chris a neon light up sign for Christmas. Maybe that’ll be subtle enough for ya.” Nancy grumbled before she got to her feet and headed over to play with Ruby and the girls, leaving Roy more than a little confused.

“O...kay?”


	27. Even the Werewolf Sees It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little drabble with Marcos and Chris as the stars, set before Chris and Roy actually talked about their feelings

...

“Marcos…” Chris muttered under his breath in embarrassment as Rosanna’s husband looked at Chris expectantly, having “tagged along” with Ruby’s playdate, but of course in his wolf form. “You could’ve been normal, it’s not a date...I don’t think at least.” The large canine rolled its eyes as Ruby spotted Roy.

“Mr. Roy!” She said excitedly. “Poppa! Daddy! Mr. Roy’s here!” She ran over to the tall man, who laughed as he was tackled in a hug.

“Hi Ruby, it’s good to see you!” Roy chuckled, seeing Chris and the canine. “Hey Chris, I didn’t know you had a dog…”

“He’s Rosanna’s.” Chris said deadpanned, confusing Roy as Ruby giggled. “He just wanted to come with us to make sure we all behaved or whatever.” Marcos nudged Chris and made some growling sounds and Chris went red, knowing full well what Marcos was impling despite the language gap at the moment. “This isn’t a date man! Sheesh! You admit  _ one _ thing and you never hear the end of it!” Roy chuckled as Ruby took his hand.

“Daddy and Poppa are being silly, aren’t they Mr. Roy?” Roy chuckled, noting the rather strange name for the dog but chalking it up to toddler naming.

“Most certainly, Ruby,” He said. “Shall we go race to the slide?” Ruby’s eyes lit up as she shrieked with laughter before racing to the playground, Ruby laughing as he followed. Chris and Marcos watched, a small smile tugging on Chris’s lips before the canine nudged him playfully.

“Marcos!” Chris hissed. “Dude! He just likes me as a friend! I can’t make things weird between us…I mean, I’ll try and talk to him about it later, ok?” Marcos somehow managed to give Chris a lidded look before making a huff before trotting over to the playground and playing with the children and Roy. Chris sighed and wiped his face. “I can’t believe that I got scolded by a werewolf on my love life...sheesh…”


	28. Mother Knows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little mini drabble with Mrs. Hill and Ruby.

....

“Hmm…” 

“What’s wrong Mrs. Hill?” The woman looked from the dead plant in her hands to Ruby, who was curiously looking up at her.

“Ah, well, I just had a conversation with my son, and he’s lying to me.” She said simply, pocketing her phone. “He’s up to something again, though at least this time he’s attempted to cover up.”

“How?” Mrs. Hill chuckled as she showed the plant.

“I cast a temporary spell on this to tell me if what he says is not the truth. Because you know how bad it is to lie, right?” Ruby nodded.

“Yeah, is that what happened to the plant?” Mrs. Hill nodded simply as the plant slowly went regained it’s life, the spell over. “Why did he lie?”

“Well, he doesn’t think he lied to me,” Mrs. Hill explained. “You see, my son tried one of the oldest tricks in the book; he made himself forget that he did something involving Creators.” Ruby made a face of confusion.

“But doesn’t he work at Drew World?” Mrs. Hill laughed.

“Oh no, not those Creators, I mean magic Creators. They’re quite a rarity, considering their set of skills.” Ruby nodded slowly. “Do you remember the types of magic people are born with?” Ruby scrunched up her face adorably before she started listing off the types of magic and what they did. Mrs. Hill smiled softly, grateful for the distraction, though made a mental note that she should probably forewarn the Magic Police that her son might be up to something ridiculously stupid. 

_Again._


	29. Sweet-Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Antonio's accidental slip, Rosanna has a bit of fun in regards to Joshua and Cordelia, and Murray is an embarrassed dork.

...

“Good thing my parents weren’t here to hear that,” Rosanna laughed,offering a smile to Antonio as Joshua and Cordelia tried to avoid looking at each other. “They certainly haven’t been subtle about wanting more children to spoil.”

“Grandma doesn’t spoil anything!” Ruby piped up, unaware of the bright red faces of Joshua and Cordelia. “She makes sure that  _ everything _ is super fresh!” The adults chuckled.

“It’s a figure of speech, Ruby.” Murray said as Chris ruffled his daughter’s head.

“She’s saying Grandma and Grandpa want to have more people to spend all day to play with, and to sneak cookies even when Poppa and Mommy say nope.” Ruby giggled as Rosanna’s face went red and Marcos raised an eyebrow, but he was smiling.

“I told you they weren’t listen-”

“ _ Shut. Up. _ ” Murray’s mother chuckled.

“Cookies are a quick way to regain energy lost after mag-” Rosanna glared at Mrs. Hill, who feigned innocence. “I mean, the amount of sweets Murray would go after while he was in school-” Murray went red.

“MOTHER!” Alistair snickered.

“So that explains the sweet tooth and late night dessert runs...and here I thought you were a lousy cook.” The former demon smirked before looking at Ruby. “He once burnt a pot of water and-” Murray almost tackled the demon as he slammed his hand over the demon’s mouth, as red as the sauce.

“Alistair!!” Ruby giggled as she looked at her parents and the other adults.

“They’re being super silly!!”


	30. The Road To Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A glimpse into Murray's troubled past

"What on Earth were you thinking?!"

"It's not a big deal," Murray grumbled. He'd known as soon as he'd joined that his mother would be angry. She was always angry with him, it seemed. That was precisely why he hadn't been planning on telling her about his involvement with Alistair Ainsley's cult. The only reason she'd found out was because a ritual went wrong and the fire department had to be called. Alistair had gotten an earful from Mrs. Hill for allowing a 15-year-old to join his organization, but it was nothing compared to Mrs. Hill's anger toward her son.

"It's a cult, Murray! A **cult**!" Mrs. Hill yelled, gesturing to the robe Murray had been wearing. The robe was more of a costume than anything else. They didn't **need** them for the rituals or anything.  

"They're not even doing anything that dangerous," Murray tried to protest. "Half of them don't even have any magic."

"It's a gateway! Even if this cult isn't doing anything dangerous, it could lead you to dangerous places!" Mrs. Hill put her hands on Murray's shoulders, her voice going quiet. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"I know what I'm doing." Murray shrugged off her hands. "I'm not a little kid." 

He didn't know what was doing. He was only 15. He didn't know how dangerous the magical world could be. He didn't know the fear that lanced through his mother's heart whenever he got into trouble. Was this the day the Council would drag her son away? Was this the day she lost him forever? They knew what he could do. It was only a matter of time before they decided he needed to be dealt with. 

"I worry about you, Murray," Mrs. Hill said. Murray wouldn't look at her. He always felt guilty when he saw her sad face.

He could deal with her being angry. He enjoyed it. He took pleasure in his ability to piss off his parents, to show them that he wouldn't conform to their expectations of who he was supposed to be. It was when she was sad that was the worst. It was the disappointment he feared. The disappointment that always seemed to be in her eyes when she looked at him. Like there was something wrong with him.

"I'm not a little kid." He hunched his shoulders. 

"That's not what this is about, dear." His mother tried to reach for him again, but once more he shrugged her off.

"I'm going to my room," he muttered, slouching up the stairs to his room. A moment or two later, she heard his bedroom door slam shut. 

Mrs. Hill sighed heavily. She didn't want to tell Murray about what the Council might do if he kept at this, but perhaps she should. He needed to know the stakes. He needed to know why she was so worried whenever he pulled a stunt like this. 

"Is Murray in trouble?" Her attention was drawn to the kitchen, where Stella was peeking her little head around the corner. 

"Yes, he is," Mrs. Hill replied.

Stella nodded solemnly. "What did he do this time?"

"He joined a cult."

Stella's eyes widened in a comically adorable manner, although the horror in her eyes was real. 

"That's really bad," she whispered.

"Yes, yes it is." 

"Are...Are the Council gonna take Murray away?" Stella's voice was very small. 

"Not if I have anything to do with it." Mrs. Hill's expression hardened. She could still save her son. She knew she could. She'd have a talk with Ainsley in the morning and tell him to kick Murray out of the cult. He was positively petrified of her, so it wouldn't be too hard. 

.

Unfortunately, the conversation the next day didn't go the way she'd hoped. 

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Alistair replied upon her request. 

"What do you mean?" Mrs. Hill demanded. "Just kick him out! Tell him he can't come back!"

"I couldn't keep him away if I tried." Alistair smiled apologetically. "He's remarkably determined. Even if I told him not to come back, he would anyway." Mrs. Hill gritted her teeth, sitting back in her chair. She knew he was right. Murray could be so stubborn. Especially when it came to pissing off her and her husband. 

"I'll try to keep him out of trouble." Alistair tried to reassure her, but she took no comfort from his words. Murray always seemed to be able to find trouble no matter who was watching out for him.

It was almost a relief when he got possessed. The demon could be annoying, yes, but it seemed to at least possess some inkling of common sense. That was more than could be said for Murray.

"Just...keep him out of trouble," she'd said upon being greeted with the demon wearing her son's face. The demon had been a bit taken aback at this. 

"You're not going to yell at me?" It asked. "Not going to tell me to get out of your son's body?" 

"He needs someone to keep him from doing foolish things," she replied. "Gods know the only one who can do that is someone piloting his body." 

"Fair point." The demon smiled, a surprisingly tender expression. "I'll do what I can." She hated that its words actually held some comfort for her. 

So many times Mrs. Hill wondered what she'd done wrong. Was there more she could have done? Could she have prevented her son from going down this path? Could she have done something? The thought kept her up at night. 


End file.
